George Takei on being compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance

[Pluvious]

In the internment camps, we were forced to face the U.S. flag each morning and recite the Pledge of Allegiance from behind barbed wire fences. Patriotism is earned by a nation that lives up to its promises. It is our sacred duty always to speak out when it does not. #TakeAKnee

Link to tweet

[treestar]

1. Ironic, since didn't they put people in the camps

based on the fear they might not be loyal?

[Algernon Moncrieff]

2. Just like the big roundups of German Americans in Chicago and Milwaukee

...and the mass arrests of Italian Americans in New York & Boston


Oh, wait! That didn't happen. Why do you suppose that was?

[StevieM]

3. According to the Texas public schools it did. (eom)

[fierywoman]

6. My German grandmother, aunt and her husband were "rounded up" in NY during WWII --

the aunt and her husband were sent to an internment camp in Texas where a cousin was born.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

7. Were they American citizens or resident aliens?

If the latter, I'm surprised they weren't deported at the outset of hostilities ; if the former - I'll admit to not having heard of that.

[fierywoman]

11. Resident aliens (I guess). My uncle was asked to fight -- he agreed if he could contribute by doing

what he did for a living in the armed forces, which was being a baker . But he said he couldn't shoot at his brothers still in Germany. So they sent him to an internment camp. They'd been living in the US since the mid-1920's.

[treestar]

20. Never knew of those - very informative

Did they sue the US later (as the Japanese internees did)?

[fierywoman]

28. No.

[Aristus]

10. About 5,000 German-Americans and Italian-Americans were rounded up & detained in early 1942.

Most of them were released after only a short time. Few, if any, were exiled to internment camps or forced to sell their property for cents on the dollar.

[dembotoz]

12. Family story was during ww1 there were parts of Milwaukee my grandfather couldn't go

The industrial valley...he was born here but not sure of his parents.
Now I am the family elder and the story is lost when I die.
He died before I became interested in politics.

[OnDoutside]

13. Do you mean for National security reasons ?

[dembotoz]

16. Because his heritage was German

[OnDoutside]

22. Gotcha, thanks.

[maddiemom]

27. My grandfather was a steward on a German ocean liner and so spoke pretty good English.

They were docked in NYC when WWI broke out, so he jumped ship and passed himself off as a Swede, looking for some of his family working in the Pennsylvania coalfields. My grandma's Austro-Hungarian family ran a boarding house where he ended up (my great-mother claimed she was Austrian and Franz Josef had been her emperor, but borders were pretty fluid at the time). They "busted" him as German, rather than Swedish. At least this is the family story, backed up by his family still in Germany, who kept in touch after the war was over. I never knew him, as he died when my father was very young. I do remember that our German relatives used to send the most beautiful Christmas cards!

[OnDoutside]

29. Great story ! Was he interned for the duration ?

[maddiemom]

32. No, he actually arrived when the U.S. was still officially neutral.

Apparently he decided to stay here, as the war had started in Europe, but thought it more judicious to to pass as Swedish and (I guess) got away with it outside my grandmother's family. He died at the end of the 1919 flu epidemic, so was only here four or five years, but left a widow and two tiny children.

[maddiemom]

33. Oh, and he never found his relatives, so I guess that made being "Swedish" easier.

[oberliner]

15. Could it be because Japan actually bombed the United States?

FDR issued this executive order right after Pearl Harbor.

Shameful chapter in our history.

[dflprincess]

39. And Germany declared war on the U.S. a few days after Pearl Harbor

People are not taught that FDR made a second trip to Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Germany after Germany declared war on us.

One of the people who pushed for FDR's executive order was Earl Warren who was the Attorney General of California at the time and William O. Douglas voted to uphold the removals when the cases came in front of the Supreme Court. I never quite recovered from learning those two facts

[treestar]

19. I have heard of Germans

changing their name to sound less German. (Since they are in the news, the royal family did that, both their name and Philip changing his to Mountbatten instead of the German-sounding original)

But they were European in origin, so it's racism. No actual camps.

[geardaddy]

24. Yep, Philip was originally Battenburg

And George V changed the royal name in WWI from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. The current royal family really started with the House of Hanover with George I who actually spoke no English.

[OnDoutside]

30. Battenberg cake ... mmmm

And here in Cork we have a Battenberg Triangle cake .... mmmmmmm

:large

[Haggis for Breakfast]

40. Helo i chi, Geardaddy

If I remember correctly, the Royal family still has about 400 relatives - mostly cousins - in Germany. Must be one Hell of a family reunion.

Margaret Rose did everything in her power to avoid any reference to their German ancestry, too. It was widely reported that she and her entourage went to see the premier showing of "Schindler's List" in London. After about 15 minutes, she stood up and loudly complained of boredom, at which point her entire party awkwardly rose and they walked out of the cinema (What she reportedly said later was, "It was a tedious little film about Jews.&quot . Ah, Margaret . . . always such a class act.

Tan y tro nesaf.

[malthaussen]

21. Well, actually, Germans and Italians were interned in camps, also.

Even the Texas Historical Commission has an article about it:
http://www.thc.texas.gov/preserve/projects-and-programs/military-history/texas-world-war-ii/japanese-german-and-italian

Or, you could go right to the National Archives:
https://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/enemy-aliens-overview.html

No "mass arrests," agreed.

-- Mal

[geardaddy]

25. Yep, but most of the Germans and Italians weren't US citizens.

They were resident aliens.
Either way, it was a bad idea.

[MustLoveBeagles]

4. He's a national treasure

[BobTheSubgenius]

5. Being literally forced to take a vow is no vow at all.

It's the little brother of 'enhanced interrogation.'

[Crash2Parties]

8. This isn't the government acting (directly), it's corporations.

Remember Citizens' United?

One of the little known & very little reported on parts of the ruling is that it gave corporations the legal right to force employees to publicly appear to support whatever political or social causes the owners wish - or risk being fired or punished.

By the way, this mixing of Government, Nationalism and Corporations has a name.

[erronis]

35. Thanks for reporting on that part of Citizens' United (what a name!). Employees lost their 1st amend

rights.

I'm _totally_ mystified by what name the mixing of Government, Nationalism, and Corporations could have. </sarcasm>

And I guess the unions and labor/people's groups could be called Communist and Socialist. It's our patriotic duty to fight those!!!

[califootman]

9. How cruelly ironic and depressing it must have been...

...to stand out in the cold every morning, day after day after day, in what is essentially a prison compound in some remote place like Tule Lake, and recite a Pledge that ends with the phrase, "with Liberty and Justice for all".

[KelleyKramer]

14. Wish I could recommend this a thousand times

Well said Mr Takei, well said

[planetc]

17. During WWI, my uncle changed his name from Schmidt to Smith.

Then he served in the American Expeditionary Force. Neither the Germans nor the Americans killed him.

[Maeve]

18. Taking a pledge proves nothing

Either a person means it and so doesn't need to say it or the person doesn't and is simply mouthing words.
I haven't pledged to the flag in years; let my service to our country and community stand for itself.

[OMGWTF]

23. "My country right or wrong ...

when right, to be kept right and when wrong to be made right." No one remembers that last and most important part of this saying.

[Nitram]

26. When forced to pledge allegiance I always changed the wording to:

With liberty and justice for some...

[Uncle Joe]

31. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Pluvious

[Pluvious]

34. Ubetcha mon

I'm glad so many of us still care.

If apathy wins this November, I fear for what my Country could become.

[Uncle Joe]

36. I don't believe that apathy will rule this midterm, there

will be hell to pay and blood in the water from the Republicans



Peace to you

[lambchopp59]

37. pseudologia fantastica or mythomania house of cards imploding

Has rendered the pledge meaningless again rather than spur innovation, education as science forward infrastructure that would really, forgive the ripoff: "MAGA".
as have the masses who've bought into the Goebbels style false "patriotism".
Still smiling proud of Colin here I'd proudly take a knee beside him.

[Owl]

38. Recited the pledge hundreds of times through grade school.

How many times are necessary?